Herntal truss



UNITED srATEs Partir oEErcE.

E. B. GRAHAM, 0F MIDDLETOWN, NEW YORK.

HERNIAL TRUSS.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 18,4130, dated August 14, 1855.

To all whom t may concern.'

Be it known that I, E. B. GRAHAM, of Middletown, in the county of Orange and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Graduating- Trusses for Hernia; and I do hereby declare that the following is a ull, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which- Figure l, is a front view of a truss with my improvement, and F ig. 2, a section of the pad, graduating lever, and spring catch.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in both figures.

In graduating trusses of the common kind, the pad lever is secured by a spring catch engaging in a ratchet with beveled or inclined teeth, which prevent the catch slipping in one direction but not in the other and the consequence is that when worn by.

laborers or other persons having to lift or liable to come in contact with heavy bodies, a blow or pressure will sometimes be given to the pad, which will cause the catch to slip over the teeth and allow the pad to move toward the body and increase the pressure thereon to a painful extent. Another source of inconvenience is that the teeth cannot be made small enough to graduate the pressure with as much nicety as is desirable.

My invention consists in employing a rack with square notches to receive the square end of a spring catch and prevent the shifting of the pad toward as well as from the body, and making the spring catch adjustable at the point of attachment to the pad or lever so as to admit of an adjustment of the pad between the adjustments allowed by the movement of the spring catch from one tooth to the other of the ratchet.

To enable those skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I will proceed to describe its construction and operation.

A, is the pad which is attached to a lever a, which is fitted to turn on a pin Z), secured to the end of a forming part of the main spring ot the truss, in the same manner as the pad of other graduating trusses.

c, is the rack which forms a segment described from the center of the pin Z), to which is it secured. The teeth of this rack and the notches between them are shown in Fig. 2, to be nearly square.

cl, is the spring catch which is secured to the pad by a screw e, and is bent at the point to enter squarely into the notches of the segment, the point also being square. To graduate the pad, the spring catch is drawn by the hand from the rack and the pad shifted in or out as may be required and the spring is allowed to fall into another notch in the rack. By providing a slot f, where the screw e, passes through the spring catch CZ, adjust-ment is allowed between the degrees admitted by shifting the catch from one tooth of the rack to the next. rIhis adjustment is effected simply by unscrewing the screw e, and pushing the pad in or out, the point of the catch being in the meantime held by the rack.

I do not claim of itself the invention of a square toothed rack and square pointed spring catch, but f IVhat I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is- The within described means of adjusting and securing the pad in any desirable position consisting of the square toothed rack c, the adjustable square toothed and slotted spring catch d, and the screw e, all combined and applied substantially as herein set forth.

E. B. GRAHAM.

Vitnesses:

J. W. CooMB, Jos. GEO. MASON. 

